News

Siegfried R. Waldvogel receives UNIPRENEURS award

Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger honors JGU chemistry professor with the title "UNIPRENEUR"
Professor Dr. Siegfried R. Waldvogel, Professor at the Department of Chemistry at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and spokesperson for its profile area "SusInnoScience" (Sustainable Chemistry as the Key to Innovation in Resource-efficient Science in the Anthropocene) and the BMBF-Future Cluster ETOS (Electrification of Technical Organic Syntheses) was honored yesterday by the Federal Minister of Education and Research, Bettina Stark-Watzinger, for founding his company ESy-Labs GmbH. At a ceremony in Berlin, Stark-Watzinger awarded him the title "UNIPRENEUR" of the initiative UNIPRENEURS. This is under the patronage of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection, cooperates with the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft and has the task of promoting entrepreneurship at German universities. "We want to strengthen start-up activity at our universities. Professors play a central role in this. They make a significant contribution to the start-up culture at universities and are important drivers of Germany's innovative strength and future viability," says Stark-Watzinger. Prof. Dr. Siegfried R. Waldvogel is one of 20 professors who received the "UNIPRENEUR" award yesterday. Previously, 700 candidates had been nominated by company founders. The certificate is signed by Bettina Stark-Watzinger, Federal Minister of Education and Research, and Dr. Robert Habeck, Federal Minister of Economics and Climate Protection, both as patrons.

The award
The UNIPRENEURS award is based on the voice of the founders, as only they can conclusively assess the quality of the inspiration and support provided by the professors. The most advanced 5,502 founders in Germany from the commercial register were identified and contacted. In addition, together with the 20 best venture capital investors and 20 most successful founders, a large-scale campaign with more than 500,000 contacts was run over 6 weeks in April and May of this year. As a result, almost 700 nominations were received from founders. These were then discussed by a renowned board of trustees with the participation of Achim Berg (former President, Bitkom & Operating Partner, General Atlantic), Andrea Frank (Deputy Secretary General and Member of the Executive Board of the Stifterverband), Dr. Alexander von Frankenberg (Managing Director of High-Tech Gründerfonds), Prof. Dr. Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla (Chairwoman of the Board of the German Aerospace Center) and Mr. Hilpert, who decided on the 20 award winners.

"We congratulate Siegfried Waldvogel on his award as a company founder and wish him every success with ESy-Labs," says JGU President Prof. Dr. Georg Krausch. "The award illustrates the outstanding work being done in our SusInnoScience profile area and highlights JGU's research strength in the field of sustainable chemistry."

Electrosynthesis as a technology of the future
Based on his research at JGU, Waldvogel founded ESy-Labs in 2018 together with Dr. Tobias Gärtner from the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology. The company specializes in the application of electrosynthesis for the production of organic and inorganic raw materials required by the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. "The advantages of electrosynthesis are that electricity replaces chemical reagents, which are expensive and usually generate toxic waste. In addition, electricity from renewable sources can be used," says Waldvogel. "This makes electrosynthesis a technology of the future that will become dramatically more important in the coming years due to climate change." However, there is still a gap between laboratory application and industrial use, i.e. the production of raw materials in quantities of several grams and several tons. ESy-Labs aims to close this gap between academic and industrial research by focusing on process development and custom electrosynthesis. An important aspect of this is the conversion of waste streams into valuable products, for example the recovery of zinc from fly ash. The company is based in Regensburg and Gernsheim and now has more than ten employees.